The lesson this morning will
be taken from James 1, verses 5-8. The subject, I believe, of these
verses is concerning the prayer of faith. Let's read these verses
together. James 1, beginning with verse
5. If any of you lack wisdom, Let
him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given him. And I've often pointed this out
when you're reading through the scriptures, and you see a word
that's in italics. And if you'll look back there,
you'll see that word men is in italics. And what that means
is it wasn't in the original text, and you can lift it out.
The translators put it in to make it read more evenly, better
to read. But you can lift it out and not
do any damage to the text. So if you look closely, you'll
notice the word men is in italics. Let's lift that word out and
read that verse again. If any of you lack wisdom, Let
him ask of God who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth
not. So what's the difference as I've
just read the text? Well, the difference is God doesn't
give to all men liberally. He gives all who call on him
by faith. He gives liberally and upbraideth
not. And so that your next verse,
you look at it now, it reads more in context. But let him
ask in faith nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like
the wave of the sea. He's driven with the wind and
tossed. For let not that man think that
he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man
is unstable in all His ways. So here's the subject, the prayer
of faith. The prayer of faith. And I want
to begin this morning with this question. It may seem, maybe it might seem a little
basic to you, but I assure you it's not. What is this prayer
of faith? What is prayer? Let's narrow
it down to that. What is prayer? Well, a prayer to me is another
one of those religious terms that we spit out and have no
depth of understanding about what we're talking about. I'll
pray for you. Or we'll leave somebody and say,
now pray for us. And we've got so little understanding
about what it is we're asking. In James chapter 5, talking about
a sick brother and sister in the Lord, James says in verse
15, And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall
raise him up, and if he hath committed sins, they shall be
forgiven him. Can prayer heal the sick? No. No, no it can't. Can prayer put away sin? Absolutely
not. But Christ can. And prayer makes
its request to God in the light of Jesus Christ. James chapter 1 verse 5 says,
let him ask of God. Of God. What is prayer? It's communication with God.
That's what prayer is. I tell you, we rush into prayer,
you shouldn't do that. We need to stop and think about
who it is that we're about to make requests of, who it is that
we're communicating. This is God. He said, God's in the heavens,
we're on earth, therefore let your words be his. I'm more interested
in what he has to say than I am in what I have to say to him.
I want to hear what he says. If prayer is a faith, that's what he calls
it, the prayer of faith. And if prayer is a faith, then
it's a gift of grace. If prayer is the gift of grace,
then so are all of its fruits. Saul of Tarsus was a man feared
by the early church. He was feared. Boy, he was vicious.
He put men to death. He had men locked up in prison.
He had them martyred. He had them sawed asunder with
wooden saws. He didn't care what they did
with them. And he didn't care if they were male or female,
young or old. He didn't care. He thought he
was doing God a service. And then the Lord did something
for Saul, but the church was skeptical.
They thought this is just another ploy by him. He's doing this
under a pretense so he can reach even deeper into the church. And they were very skeptical
of Paul. They were hesitant to receive
anything that Saul of Tarsus had to say. And they started observing Saul,
looking at him closely, and one of them said, Behold, he prayeth. Never seen him do that before.
He prayeth. Prayer is the fruit, I hope you
can hear me, of a believing soul. That's what it is. Someone said it's the breath
of a believer. That little tiny baby is born
and they smack it on its bottom and it begins to cry and breathe. It's evidence of life. That's
what prayer is. Evidence of life. If it be of
faith, it's a gift of grace. And if it's source is faith.
And here, now we're getting down to where the rubber meets the
road. If its source is faith, then all it does, it does accordingly. Let that sink in. Men pray as they believe. Do I really believe God is sovereign? Then my prayer ought to relate
that. It ought to show that. It ought
to evidence that. ought to pray that way. Do I
really believe God is merciful? Then ought to pray that way.
Do I believe God's purpose to save sinners? Then ought to pray
for sinners, shouldn't I? Do I believe that Had He spared
not His own Son, He is willing and able to also freely give
us all things, then let me pray that way. Let me have confidence
in that. If faith is a source of prayer,
then all that it does will be accordingly. And if prayer be
of faith, then it must be seasoned with all that faith implies. Prayers given to his disciples
in outline form over Matthew 6, verses 9 through 13. You don't need to turn there,
because you're all familiar with the Lord's Prayer. We used to
have to quote it in school. We'd stand up and say, the Lord's
Prayer. It's really not the Lord's Prayer.
It's the disciples' prayer. And it's an outline to teach
us how to pray. And so he gives an outline. He
said, our Father, which art in heaven, Prayer is a conversation born
of the spirit of adoption. How are you going to call God
your father if you're not adopted, if you're not a son? It's born
of the spirit of adoption. Because you're sons, God has
sent forth his spirit into your heart, and you cry, Abba, Father,
our Father, which art in heaven. And believers know God to be
their Father. They've received the benefits
of a loving Father. James goes on to say, every good
gift and every perfect gift cometh down from what? The Father of
lights. We've received the benefits of
a loving Father. We've received the relationship
of His house and the honor of His name. Her name shall be called
the Lord our righteousness, same as His. And we receive the provision
of His hand. And then he says this. Now this
is how we're to pray, our Father. We're coming to Him as the source
of all things. And we're coming to Him in the
knowledge of His purpose, of His will, of His Son, of the
manifestation of His glory, and we're coming to Him by faith.
And here's the second thing we say in our prayer, hallowed be
thy name. Oh, that means greatly revered
and honored. God's name is who he is, his
attributes, his perfections. And his name is only made known
to his children. No man knoweth the Father save
the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. None other name unto heaven given
to unto men whereby they must be saved. It's a name hallowed
and revered by his children. And then here's the next thing
we think about when we go in prayer. His kingdom. God has
a kingdom. What's that talking about? That's
talking about his rule. That's talking about his people.
That's talking about his government. come. A spiritual kingdom, a willing,
submissive kingdom, an effectual kingdom, a holy nation, a royal
priesthood, and on and on it goes with descriptions of His
kingdom. By kingdom come. And by will
be done in earth as it is in heaven. Religion sets God's will
forth as being done in heaven, but waiting on you to see if
you're going to let Him do what He wants to on earth. When a
believer goes to his father in prayer, his name is hallowed
in his heart. He knows who God is. He knows
what God's doing. He knows what God's done. And
he prays that way. And he said, thy will be done
in earth, the same as it's done in heaven. Is God's will being
done in the earth? Absolutely. Or what if? There is no what
if. Who's going to stay his hand?
Who's going to question him? This is your maker. Shall the
thing form, say unto him that formed it, wisest thou made me
though? We ain't going to question him. Not going to change him. Think about it. Thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. And God doeth according his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
None can stay his hand or even question what he does. But here's
what I believe prayer is expressive of, this particular part. God's accomplished will. His
accomplished will. Christ said, I come to do thy
will, O God. In the volume of the book, it's
written in there. When I pray, Thy will be done in earth, I'm
talking about His accomplished will. I'm talking about the will
of salvation, His redemptive will. It's going to be done in
earth exactly as it is in heaven. Is Christ in heaven? Yes. Is
He accepted? Yes. Has He redeemed us from
our sins? Yes. Are we justified? Yes. He was raised again for our justification. Thy will be done. right here,
right now, and let me know that in my heart. God's accomplished
will, God's will of redemption being accomplished by the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ, who is our salvation, and that
we know these things by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, which is shed on us by His Spirit. Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven, Those who are justified,
reconciled to God in heaven, seated with Him in glory, and
many are, many are. Even so, shall those here, justified
by Him, be reconciled to God in the earth and brought into
fellowship with Him. And then he says this, here's
the next outline of prayer. We're talking about what is prayer?
What is it? It's communion with God. That's
what it is. And so when we pray, we get aligned
with God's will. We come in here with some sense
of understanding of who God is. And then here's the next thing.
We've already discussed several things here in prayer, and we
haven't even got to our request yet. He said, give us this day
our daily bread. Well, he's talking about two
things here. He's talking about our spiritual and eternal bread,
which is Christ, and he's also talking about our sustenance
of bread and his provision of life in this world. Give us this
day our daily bread. I mean, let me tell you something. We're going to hear about Christ
all morning this morning, Lord willing. Is that going to last me from
now on? No, I'm going to have tomorrow's bread tomorrow, won't I? Give us this day, this day,
in the light of what I know, in the light of what's going
on, in the reality of time. Give me this day, my daily bread. That's what I need. Somebody
told Spurgeon they were Oh, he'd been up all night and worried,
and Spurgeon asked him, he said, what's the problem? He said,
I don't have dying grace. He said, are you dying? Well,
no. He said, well, you don't need
dying grace. If you're not dying, you need living grace, would
you? Give us this day our daily bread, our daily bread. Oh, and forgive us our debts. Oh my. But that's not all of it, is
it? Forgive us our debts as we forgive
our debtors. Talking about the attitude of
the believer. And in the light of God's forgiveness
of him, He ought to be and will be forgiving to others. I pray
for forgiveness for others in the light of my own. That's what
I'll do. And he said, forgive us. Now we're getting down to the
heart of prayer. Forgive us. Let's start with me. Forgive
me. That's where prayer starts, isn't
it? Forgive us. And then he says
this, lead us not into temptation. What's he talking about? I believe
he's talking about God's restraining grace. Grace to avoid circumstance and
opportunity. It don't take much to draw us
away, does it? Don't take much. So it's best
to prevent it altogether. And so that's how we pray. Satan's
a master of deception and there's no end to what he invents to
draw men away. No end. No end. You think you got a handle
on it? You don't. I promise you, you don't. And
then we close with the reason behind our prayers and the basis
of all our requests and confidence in these things. For thine is
the kingdom. It belongs to him. He rules the kingdom. His will done. They obey him. You have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Thine is the kingdom. Now listen
to this and the power. And He don't just say, I have
a kingdom. He orders the kingdom. He builds
the kingdom. He comes in and takes the strong
man down. You can read it for yourself
in the scripture. Thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory. The glory of it all. How long? Long as we let it. Forever. That's what it says,
isn't it? Forever. Oh, don't you want to
pray that way? This is what James is talking
about, the prayer of faith. He ain't just talking about spitting
out words. He's not talking about a shopping list. I need this.
I want that. No. No, we're going to go to
prayer. We're going to talk to God. And then he says, Amen. So be
it. The prayer of faith. So how is
prayer pictured in the Scripture? Let's look at this for just a
minute or two. How is prayer pictured in the Scripture? Well,
turn with me to Hebrews chapter 4. In the first part of chapter
4, he exhorts us to enter into God's rest, which is Christ. We're going to rest in Him. He's our Sabbath. We don't keep
a Sabbath day. We see that day fulfilled in
Christ. He's our rest. He's our eternal rest. We rest
in Him in whom God rested. So having exhorted us to enter
into God's rest, which is Christ, He begins to tell us where Christ
is now. and that he's there in the presence
of God, seated at God's right hand as an intercessor, as a
high priest. And this high priest can be,
who's passed into the heavens, is one being made one with us
in body and can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He knows what it is that we ask. Now watch this, verse 16. Let
us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. House prayer pictured in
the Scriptures, entering into the throne room of God. It's not just spitting out words
in the air and hoping God will look down here. It's walking
into the throne room of God. It's having an audience with
God. Back yonder in the old tabernacle, there was a holy place out front
and any of the priests, the common priests could go in there and
do their service to God, the bread on the table, oil in the
lamp, all of these things. Just a common priest would go
in there and that was his work every day. But one time a year,
the high priest would go beyond, there was a thick heavy veil,
and he'd go beyond that. Only the high priest could do
it. You read about it over there in Hebrews chapter 9. The high
priest, one time a year, he'd go beyond that veil, not without
blood, And he took that blood, and he poured it out on the mercy
seat. That mercy seat covered the ark.
The law of God was in that ark, the broken law. The evidence
of life was in that ark. Everything's in the ark. And
there's a mercy seat above the ark, and the blood was poured
out on the mercy seat. Jesus Christ is seated in glory
on the mercy seat. Now here's what God said about
the mercy seat back in Exodus 25, I think it's verse 22. He
said, there, told him about the mercy seat. He said, there is
where our communion will be. Communion with God in prayer
is at the mercy seat. This throne is not just a throne
of sovereignty, but it's a throne of sovereign grace. And the reason
is that mercy seat. Christ seated at the right hand
of God. This mercy seat is indicative
of our Lord's being seated at the right hand of God. He entered
into heaven itself with His own blood, obtained eternal redemption
for us. And now He sits as our great
High Priest and Mediator of God at God's right hand. When He
had by Himself purged our sins, the Scripture said He sat down
on the right hand of the Majesty on high. And His seat and His
sitting is what makes this throne a throne of grace. Jesus Christ
is the head of the body of the church, as he is its federal
head and representative. And representatively, he is seated
at God's right hand. And here's what Paul says to
the Romans. Listen to this carefully. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, it's God who
justifies. Who is he that condemneth? Now
watch this. It's Christ that died, yea rather,
is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
maketh intercession for us. Now who's going to separate you
from the love of God? Huh? Things present, things to
come. You see what I'm saying? When
we pray, we need to think about who it is we're praying to, and
what it is He's done to us to enable us to come into His presence. The throne of God is a throne
of grace, and prayer enters into this throne room. And the apostle,
inspired by the Holy Ghost, calls this entrance bold. My soul, think about who you,
we're the biggest nothing there ever was. We are, that's what
we are, a great big nothing. And we're coming into the presence
of God Almighty, the creator of the universe. We're coming
right into his presence. You think that's not a bold act? He said, if you touch the mountain
where I've given my law, You'll be thrust through with the darts.
Lightning will consume you like a... You'll disappear. Huh? But we're going to come into
his throne room. We ain't touching his mountain.
We're coming right into his throne room. What other word could you
possibly use other than bold? And oh, when I think of God's
throne, And think of the glory associated with it, creation
and providence and salvation, the creation, the order, the
arrangement, the maintenance of it, providence with all of
its twists and turns, with all of its minute details,
with all of its unfathomable scope, even to the death of sparrows
and the numbering of the hairs on your head. And then what of
judgment? Does that not emanate from the
throne of God? If there be no throne, there
can be no judgment. Judgment supposes a judge, and
it supposes authority. From the sovereign eternal throne
of God, a picture is given of Him with a sealed book. I'll tell you what I did this
past week while I was studying this. I went through the book
of Revelation and everywhere I saw that word throne, I looked
at it carefully. You would be amazed at what he
associates with that throne. A voice. Will God communicate? If he does, it'll be from his
throne. How's he gonna do it with a voice? There was lightnings
and thunders, great judgments, all kinds of things, but there
was voices. And I'll tell you something else sit there. He said there were 24 elders.
What's that? That's pastors. Where were they? By the throne. There was a book
sealed. Where was that at? In the hands
of him that sat on the throne. There was a people. And people
looked at him and they said, who are these? Arrayed in white
men, who are these? Oh, these are they that come
out of great tribulation. Wash their robes in the blood
of the Lamb. What do they do? They serve Him
day and night before His throne. Go and look at it. You talk about
blessing. Everything a believer has comes
from that throne. Where does prayer go? To the
throne room of God. That's where it goes. You want
something? That's where it's at. That's
where it's at. You ain't going to find it here.
And you ain't going to find it beaten there with words. There is a throne, and the one
seated there is the blessed and only potentate, the Lord of Lords
and King of Kings. In Hebrews 10, 19, Paul talks
about having a boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood
of Jesus, by a new and living way which He hath consecrated
for us through the veil, that is, through His flesh. And so
he says, verse 22, Hebrews chapter 10, let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. And so
James says in verse 6, let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. Let me give you four or five
things real quick about this wavering. We shouldn't waver
about what we're asking for. or what we're offering to God.
Need to get that settled before we go to Him in prayer. And secondly, we shouldn't waver
as to God's power to do what we ask Him. He's almighty. It's not a matter of if with
Him, the if lies with us. God can do all things. Thirdly,
we need to be convinced and leave it in his hands as to his will
in the matter. Whatever I ask him, I need to
leave it in his hands. He can't do wrong, Walter. He
can't. His nature won't allow him. He
can't do wrong. He can't lie. He can't do wrong.
So why wouldn't I want to leave it in his hands? And he's all
wise. I don't need to hold it in my
hand. I need to give it to him and leave it in his hands. And fourthly, we dare not question
His faithfulness and His promises. And lastly, our prayer in the
whole must be subject to His purpose and way. It's not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. What are you saying, Pastor?
I'm saying believers have the mind of Christ. And that mind
goes with them in prayer. Prayer is not something different.
It's the prayer of faith. It's the fruit of faith. And
Paul writes, Rejoice with them that do rejoice, weep with them
that weep, and be of the same mind one toward another. We're
to come into the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son
of God and be renewed in the spirit of our minds. We have
the mind of Christ, not the mind of the world. And we are one
mind when it comes to God and worship and prayer. But of all
those who are not, these double-minded men. He said, let not that man think
that he shall receive anything.